“Imagine if the men in this chamber had to fill out a form and get a rider for Viagra or Cialis and it was public.” Sen. Barbara Boxer said during debate on the Nelson-Hatch amendment. “Forget about it. There would be a rage in this chamber.”

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) also used the comparison, saying that he wanted his daughters and granddaughters to have access to all “reproductive health care.”

“What if we were to vote on a Viagra amendment and it had the same limits would apply for abortion?” Lautenberg said during Tuesday’s debate, adding that the reaction would be “outrage.”

Viagra helps men (and presumably their wives) achieve sexual
satisfaction. This is not truly necessary from a health standpoint, but
has no other morally worrisome aspects to it. Is Boxer arguing that
abortion is some sort of sexual satisfaction procedure?

Besides the fact that Mr. Cramer is assuming that only married men are using the drug (and oh, how I would love to see a card check for THAT one!), his own analogy falls flat as well. Viagra coverage was granted because drug companies argued it as a necessity for promoting male self-esteem. That sounds eerily like a "mental health" argument to me…

But "male self-esteem" pills aren’t the only ones being debated these days. In Italy, RU 486 has just been approved to be made available in the country. Italy was one of the last countries in Europe to approve the drug.